Interview with the painter Klio Karadim by Dessislava BerndtTranslated from German by Dessislava Berndt, Proofreading: Simon Pavlov

Klio Karadim, Photo: private

Klio, how did you get into painting?

In the 80’s in Bulgaria you had to choose your further school after the 7th school year. I didn’t want to become a secretary in an office. My mother was a photographer, my aunt was a sculptor and my uncle was a painter. So, I wanted to do something related to art and maybe even become an artist. Therefore, I applied for the school of applied arts in Sofia, Textile Faculty.

The gallery in Nikolai district , Photos: desenze

After my higher education entrance qualification I painted and sold my pictures on the streets along the Black Sea.

They slip into the front seat of the station
wagon. This is their time together, each
week. He backs down the driveway, lights
up and inhales the smoke as she recites
the day: the long mass, recess, those stupid boys.
They stop at the midtown storefront. She yanks
the suitcase with her accordion Read on →

Mr. Ezra, would you tell us more about your creative path? Why have you chosen the double bass?

My creative path began when I was very young, when I was 5 I started to play the violin. After a few years of classical training I started to listen to more modern music like pop and rock. This led me to start playing the guitar and later on to play the electric bass. During all this time I was playing the piano too.Read on →

Elena Shumilova has captured the attention of the world with her endearing and ethereal photos of her children and farm animals in the countryside. She has been featured on media worldwide, from Huffington Post to ABC News to Reddit and beyond. It’s immediately obvious that Elena’s portfolio is far more than a collection of family snaps – this is her art and no matter how circumstantial the scene that she focuses her lens on, the process doesn’t start or end at the press of the shutter. It’s clear that a lot of planning, time, love and effort goes into the creation of each image.

“After graduating from the university I spent several years working as an architect and designer. My passion for photography manifested in early 2012 when I got my first DSLR camera. Soon after – in the summer – I upgraded to Cannon 5dmark2 with 50mm lens. I’ve been shooting every day and processing the images at nights. By autumn I felt I found my own way of approaching photography. At the end of winter 2013 I got a new lens – 135 mm – which immediately became my favorite one.

What would you like for the American readers to know about you personally?

Poet. That’s enough. Here is more: I live in Germany, but I was born in Bulgaria. I’m often told that my poems are influenced by another culture, that they’re not entirely Bulgarian. But I write in Bulgarian, because this is the language that gives me great power. For me it is distinct from day-to-day use and has turned into a language only for poetry. Read on →

Interview with the German designer Beatrix Giouras by Dessislava BerndtTranslated from German by Dessislava Berndt, Proofreading: Simon Pavlov

Who or what is „Zauberwaeldchen“?

A few years ago, I formed a dragon with modeling clay. Dragons live in mystical places and are surrounded by strange creatures and plants, in magical forests, where wishes come true. That, is how the name “Zauberwaeldchen“ was born.

Today we would like to present to your attention the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Cultural Understanding in Dubai. Our questions were kindly answered by Mr. Nasif Kayed, Managing Director of the SMCCU.

Diego Fazio – DiegoKoi, was born in 1989 in the Italian town of Lamezia Terme, Calabria. He started painting as a self-taught artist and in a very short time developed an accurate and precise technique. Initially he created designs for tattoos in Asian style “carp koi”, from where he took the idea for his artist nickname.Read on →

What would you like for the American readers to know about Bulgarian poetry?

Even though The Season of Delicate Hunger is an anthology, collected on the basis of language and nationality—it contains poems originally written in Bulgarian and by Bulgarians—there is hardly anything in it that apparently melds all the poems together. If someone feels that there is, he must be certain that this is a figment of his imagination. His own illusion. Therefore I’d be happy if the American reader finds a Bulgarian author worthy of his own list of favorite authors. That would be an act of free will (unless he has a wife or a husband who is Bulgarian—then there is no opportunity for free choice). That would be enough—the possibility of seeing a masterpiece in unfamiliar literature. I also say that because in Harold Bloom’s long list of great books, The Western Canon, there is not a single Bulgarian one—proof that Bulgarian poetry is among the uncharted territories for the American audience. Read on →